Poor choice of words

The local TV news, in its 5 p.m. newscast, teased to an upcoming story by saying a Christian motorcycle group is planning to wage a “holy war” against a local town during its annual “Diversity Days” weekend.

This, as I hope I don’t need to tell you, is a bad choice of words. The group, in the story, states that its members plan to protest peacefully. Yeah, kind of different than declaring a war, of any kind.

Needless to say, Diversity Days is also a misnomer (at the very least it’s euphemistic), but at least in that case the news bureau, which is supposed to be fair and balanced, didn’t choose the unfortunate words.

News outlets should be careful about all words used. At this point in history, though, shouldn’t words like “holy war” command even more vigilance?

This from 40/29, which I’ve reprimanded here before — a news outlet that’s currently heavily advertising its receipt of a prestigious national Edward R. Murrow award, as well as its five consecutive years of Best Newscast award from the Arkansas Associated Press.